


Sunday Dinner

by tatooedlaura



Category: The X-Files
Genre: X-Files OctoberFicFest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-22
Updated: 2016-10-22
Packaged: 2018-08-23 23:49:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8347618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tatooedlaura/pseuds/tatooedlaura
Summary: required Sunday dinner ...





	

It was a typical Scully family dinner. Sunday. 4pm. Everyone within a two-hour radius was expected to attend, including Mulder, who had been at Maggie’s house enough at this point that he knew where the extra toilet paper was, could retrieve the good china, emptied the dishwasher with ease and understood in order to get the garbage disposal to work, you needed to jiggle the switch. Maggie appreciated his no-nonsense approach to the loud and boisterous crowd and she knew that the youngest grandchildren and great-nieces and nephews would attack him, climbing him like a tree the moment they saw him.

If he hadn’t shown up, she’d have had to have words with him and they would have been loud words.

Mulder knew this, too, given the lecture he’d received for spending one of these meals in his apartment instead of at her dinner table.  
He and Scully showed up early.

Leaving Scully in the front room to hang up her coat and neatly stack their shoes, Mulder wandered to the kitchen, “hey, Maggie.”

“Hi there. Ready to eat?”

The smells emitting from the oven were enough to make him believe in miracles, baby Jesus and the healing power of hearty beef stew, “I am starving and cannot wait to consume whatever is making my mouth water.”

“Good boy.” Handing him several bunches of carrots, “first, can you cut these for me for the salad?”

“Julienne or drawn and quartered?”

With a smile, she handed him the big knife, “surprise me.”

“Understood, boss.”

Scully caught most of this exchange from the darkened hall leading into the kitchen. Leaning quiet on the wall, she saw her two favorite people bantering over carrots.

Mulder … bantering … over carrots.

Lost in the idea of home life and family and the passing thought of how adorable Mulder looked sneaking vegetables surreptitiously while her mother’s back was turned, she didn’t realize how long she’d been standing there until suddenly, Mulder was in front of her, bopping the end of her nose with a carrot, “Earth to Scully? You in there?”

Eyes widening along with her smile, “yeah, yeah, sorry. Got distracted.” Following him into the kitchen, she shook her head to clear it, then, “hey, Mom, what do you need me to do?”

&&&&&&&&&&&

In typical fashion, Mulder had a pack of children surrounding him from the moment people arrived to the moment they all moved to the table. He loved the attention and buried the sad idea that this could very well be the closest he ever gets to being surrounded by Scully kids. For half a second at a time, he liked to pretend that maybe his and Scully’s kids were mixed in there, a special brood of red-headed, glasses wearing, mischief-making hooligans who questioned him about everything but in the next heartbeat, would be clamoring to see what could very well be a Bigfoot footprint in the backyard.

He could only allow these short bursts of dreaming, knowing if he dwelled too long, Scully would realize and corner him, demanding to know what was wrong and well, he just didn’t need that, not when there were short humans demanding stories and piggy-back rides.

Once Maggie had called them all to the table, there were typical arguments about who go to sit next to who and who had to sit to the left of the lefties and whether or not two phonebooks were enough for Lucy to sit on. Usually, by the time they were all seated, Scully ended up by a leftie because of her ability to eat with either hand and to do it in a way that didn’t elbow the person beside her.

Mulder ended up on her left a lot, feigning elbow hits and causing general mayhem with whomever landed across from him. Today was no exception and he immediately started making faces at Annie, who made them right back as Maggie attempted to wrestle control long enough to say grace.

Finally getting everyone’s attention, having to first hush two small children, one Mulder and one Charlie, who was hamming it up for his own two-year old son, she got them through the blessing then let them loose on the food.

Mulder wasn’t the first but he certainly wasn’t the last, following Bill in his praise of dinner; Bill, for once in his life, giving Mulder a small nod after virtues had been extolled and his mother had smiled. Mulder leaned in to Scully, whispering in her ear, “I think your brother might like me a little bit.”

Whispering back, making the hairs on his neck stand, “there should be an earthquake any second now, followed by the four horsemen.” And then, without any explanation or reason, she gave him the quickest of kisses on the sensitive skin just in front of his ear.

He went scarlet and dropped his fork on the plate, clattering the table to silence for a moment before he apologized quickly, hoping to get the fifteen individual stares off him as quickly as possible. Shoveling a mouthful in, he then slid his foot to the right, nudging her sock-clad toes with his own.

Scully immediately, without ever breaking her now engrossing conversation with her cousin Dave’s wife Jo, slipped her foot over Mulder’s, resting it on the other side of his, snuggling up to his instep in ways that made him momentarily forget how to swallow. She saw this out of the corner of her eye, his sudden stop, his freezing moment and she smiled, covering it with another forkful of lettuce lest she give herself away.

Not to be outdone, he shifted his other foot, trapping hers in between his, giving his first ever foot hug to his Scully and fervently praying it wouldn’t be the last.

The rest of the meal passed like this, feet warm and cuddling under the table while life continued unbeknownst above it. Mulder could have seriously sat at that table for the rest of his life but as usual, dinner had to end eventually and once Scully stood to help clear, he realized he missed her warmth on his toes. Huddling over the counter packing leftovers, he leaned into her, “feet getting cold?”

As she scooped stew, he watched the side of her face crease into a smile, “maybe.” Slipping her foot sideways to rest on his for a moment, “and I might need them warmed up later on, it being winter and all.”

It was the beginning of October but he wasn’t about to argue.

&&&&&&&&&&&&

It was late by the time they got out of there, the last to leave, as usual, given they both liked to stay and talk after everyone left. Finally though, they were out the door, settled in the car for the ride home. Mulder let the silence swirl around them, comfortable in it, happy to simply be sitting beside her.

Scully, for her part, felt the same, warm and cozy with the heater on her feet, her belly full and a bag of leftovers in the back. The radio played quietly in the background and had she not been so content, she would have laughed at the inanity of the whole situation, given their lives were never cozy and warm and comfortable … far from it after six years of every manner of crap hitting the fan for them.

As soon as Mulder parked, Scully asked him quickly, ignoring the butterflies raging in her stomach, “would you like to come up for a little while? I know it’s late but maybe some coffee? Hot chocolate? Bad movie?”

He wasn’t stupid enough to turn down any offer of anything from Scully, even something as simple as a cup of cocoa and he turned off the car, pulling out the keys, “sure. I’d like that.”

Hoping he couldn’t make out her pink cheeks and happy grin, they both trooped upstairs, depositing coats, gathering drinks and proceeding to get comfortable on the couch, “what would you like to watch?”

“Anything’s fine, Scully. Just as long as we watch it in the dark. Makes things more scary.”

She gave him an eyebrow for that, “more scary? Do you really think we need more scary? Besides, what if I put on ‘The Sound of Music’? What’s so scary about that, even in the dark?”

With an over-exaggerated shudder, “I lied. The lights stay on for that.”

“Why that one?”

“Nazis, Scully. Nazis in the dark.”

“Julie Andrews.”

“Nazis … in the dark … SS uniforms and German accents and Hitler mustaches … in the dark.”

They compromised with a darkened room and Mel Brooks with his singing Nazis, which Mulder said would be okay. It didn’t take long before both sets of feet were propped on the coffee table and they were covered with blankets and before he could stop himself, he scooted one of his feet under her ankles, lifting them up so they rested on top of his. With a ‘that’s better’ to himself, he slid down, wedging himself into the cushions until he was completely and totally comfortable.

Scully turned to stare at him until he cracked, a tiny smirk appearing as he nodded towards the TV, “movie’s over there, partner.”

Emboldened by dark and by toasty appendages, she scooted a little closer, her hand moving to rest on his jean-clad thigh under the covers as she nestled her head against his shoulder, “yes, it is.”

&&&&&&&&&&

She was nearly asleep by the end credits and Mulder, wide awake from mere proximity to her, carefully slid off the couch, lowering her head to the pillow he put in his spot. Covering her up, he then leaned in, kissing her on the forehead, “g’night, Scully.”

Opening her eyes, she could only maintain focus for a second at a time and as her blue eyes rolled around, blinking against sleep, “stay.”  
On his knees immediately so he could make sure he heard correctly, “what?”

Her eyelids gave up the fight and closed but she still managed to repeat, “stay with me.”

Temptation nearly won. He almost moved her over and scooted in beside her. Nearly picked her up and took her to bed. He almost said yes.

Almost.

Kissing her again, lingering longer than was truly necessary for a friendly forehead farewell, he whispered into her skin, “not this time but make sure to ask again.”

Her response consisted of a low, throaty ‘mmm-hmm’ before she turned on her side, her shirt pulling up just enough to reveal her tattoo as she rearranged the blankets automatically.

Resting his head lightly on her now exposed side for a moment, “you’re killing me, woman, for the love of your God, you’re killing me.”

And then he left, making sure to lock the door behind him.


End file.
